Dr. Roussarie’s project focuses on understanding why only certain types of neurons in specific parts of the brains are affected by the disease while other types of neurons in other brain regions remain intact. He expects to find “vulnerability factors” that could be inhibited by drugs to prevent the most fragile neurons of the brain to die. He is responsible for creating an impressive set of molecular and biochemi cal tools to achieve this goal. He is also validating some specific candidate genes which could be relevant for Alzheimer’s disease by using the human cell lines that he is co-developing with Dr. Barnea.